Hi,
I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this - please redirect if not. I see this problem with VMWare Player (version 4.0.2 installed) most often, but it also happens in VMWare Server 2.0.1 and the vSphere 5 client - the common factor seems to be the console.
I have a Windows 7 64-bit host. I used to run Server 2.0.1 on it but have recently switched to Player 4. I also use the same machine to access the consoles of machines hosted on vSphere 5. Very often, when I try to switch to a console window, no keyboard or mosue input gets through. It's intermittent - if I keep switching between other windows and the console window, or minimise, maximise and restore the console window for long enough, eventually something will 'work' and then I'll be able to use the guest OS - until the next time I switch back to the host OS, and then too often I have to go through the whole process again.
Sometimes it only takes a few seconds of switching around winodws to get it to work, other times it takes half an hour of it or more. Often it seems that the first mouse event gets through to the guest - often there will be a tooltip appear where I click into the console window, or some other such effect, but then no more input gets through.
If I mouse into the console window, then press the Windows key, the Windows 7 host start menu shows. Mouse move events then go to the guest OS as long as the start menu is open - but as soon as I click on anything in the guest OS, the start menu closes and I lose keyboard and mosue input into the guest OS again.
For what it's worth, switching between a cmd.exe window and the guest console seems to be particularly effective at 'curing' the problem (until next time) and pinging the guest machine also seems to often help, though not always. The guest machine is still active - it is responsive over the network, and if it's a Windows guest then Remote Desktop still works fine, just not the VMWare console.
I've seen the problem consistently with Windows XPSP3, Windows 7 32-bit, Windows 7 64-bit, Ubuntu 11.10 and ReactOS guests. These are the only ones I've tried.
